Businesses Plan Fewer Job Cuts

The pace of planned job cuts by major U.S. businesses slowed in November from a year earlier, though the annual layoff total moved higher, according to a survey. Planned dismissals declined 28.5% last month to 29,537 from 41,293 in November 1995, according to the monthly survey by the employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Compared with a month earlier, planned job cuts also declined, falling 38.4% from 47,911 in October. “The business outlook, although not as optimistic as earlier in the year, at least for now is good enough to keep the job-cut rate low,” said James Challenger, president of the Chicago-based employment firm. However, for the first 11 months of the year, planned job cuts totaled 439,745, up 14.3% from the first 11 months of 1995, according to the Challenger survey. For all of last year, announced job cuts totaled 439,882, the firm said.